Patrick Horgan punishes Clare’s indiscipline
For those spilling out of Páirc Uí Rinn as the rain closed in on Saturday evening, one question dominated conversations.
Just how did Cork collect their first win NHL win?
Visitors Clare were more aggressive from the start than the home side in this NHL 1A clash, dominating Cork’s puckout and edging the battle in the middle of the field for most of the 70 minutes.
The 4,737 in attendance saw them hit 16 points from play and attack up the wings with purpose, while Cork managed just five scores from play over 75 minutes.
The winning of the game, however, was Patrick Horgan’s exhibition of free-taking. The Glen Rovers man pointed 15 frees from a variety of distances and angles, his tally rising in direct proportion to Clare’s indiscipline in defence. Banner joint manager Donal Moloney acknowledged his side’s issues with those frees: “That was probably one of the main headlines, it’s something we’re going to have to look at.
“It hadn’t been a problem all last summer, but it’s a problem at the moment. We’ve got to go back and analyse why that’s happening and fix it.”
For his part, Cork manager John Meyler was “delighted with the performance,” adding: “Our game-plan wasn’t great in the first half, I thought we were struggling a bit, but we stayed in the game with points and that goal. That kept us in it.”
Cork did struggle early on: John Conlon showed up to good effect leading the Clare attack and hit three points, while Conor Cleary and Cathal Malone dominated on Cork’s puckouts.
Tony Kelly’s 20th-minute point gave Clare a 0-6 to 0-3 lead that didn’t flatter the visitors, yet Cork were level at the break.
This was largely thanks to Horgan’s accuracy and a 22nd-minute goal.
The latter was a lucky score, a high dropping ball from Seamus Harnedy going all the way to the net to level matters.
Both sides added three more points before the break but Clare also put three shots wide, indicating their superiority in the opening half: 1-6 to 0-9 at the break.
The second half was more of the same, with Kelly taking the game to Cork, ghosting out to the wing and picking off his scores, with Horgan answering from dead balls. It was still level with seven minutes to go but Cork’s substitutions bore fruit, with Luke Meade energising the home side around the middle.
In those last seven minutes Cork outscored Clare 0-4 to 0-1 for the win: Horgan contributed three points as well as a clever assist from another free for a Tim O’Mahony point from play.
“In the second half we got it right,” said Meyler. “The subs coming in like Alan (Cadogan), Darren (Browne) and Luke (Meade) made a difference; I certainly thought we got value off the bench. I was delighted with that.”
In the Clare corner, Moloney could take positives from the display: “I don’t know what we scored from play, we got a lot from play over the 70 minutes, but those frees were keeping Cork in the game.
“Any time we got a point ahead they got an equaliser, and in addition they probably got a bigger impact off the bench than we did.
“We got a good return from our full-forward line, it’s good to see John (Conlon) coming back to form, and Tony Kelly was in good form as well, so there were a lot of good performances for us — we were pleased with a lot of the performances we got.”
Moloney was right: Despite the defeat Clare’s forwards were impressive in both work-rate and accuracy. Tony Kelly played in an advanced role and his ability to make himself available as an outlet on the wing was a potent weapon for Clare all evening.
His movement asked a lot of questions of Cork’s inexperienced centre-back, Tim O’Mahony, but O’Mahony held the middle and processed a lot of ball himself. He illustrated Cork’s evening in miniature by popping up with Cork’s second-last point when the game was in the melting pot.
Clare’s biggest difficulty, of course, was Cork’s opportunity.
Horgan’s metronomic striking punished those Banner transgressions, undercutting all the visitors’ good work.
The Cork forward’s accuracy is no revelation at this stage, but his consistency on a damp evening was an encouraging sign for home supporters ahead of the heat of summer.
P Horgan (0-16, 0-15 frees); S Harnedy (1-1), J Coughlan, D Kearney, T O’Mahony (0-1 each).
T Kelly (0-6); I Galvin, J Conlon, P Duggan (3 frees, 1 65)(0-4 each); D Ryan (0-2).
A Nash, S O’Donoghue, D Cahalane, S McDonnell, C Joyce, T O’Mahony, D Griffin, C. Murphy, B Cooper, D Kearney, S Harnedy (c), C Lehane, J Coughlan, A Walsh, P Horgan.
L Meade for Murphy (48); D Browne for Griffin, A Cadogan for Coughlan (both 58)
K Hogan, R Hayes, D McInerney, J Browne, C Malone, C Cleary, D Fitzgerald, S Golden, C Galvin, P Duggan, T Kelly (c), D Ryan, I Galvin, J Conlon, P Collins.
R Taylor for Golden (52); C Guilfoyle for Duggan (60); M O’Neill for Collins (63); A McCarthy for Fitzgerald (65).
J Ryan (Tipperary).
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
